[1] In Sea Wolf, the player, piloting an unseen submarine, launches torpedoes vertically in an attempt to sink ships moving horizontally across the screen before time runs out.

[7] The player looks through a large periscope to aim at ships moving across the virtual sea line at the top of the screen, using a thumb button on the right handle of the scope to shoot torpedoes.

Sea Wolf is time-limited, with the player having an opportunity to win bonus time by reaching an operator-set score.

[8] Targets include destroyers, a fast-moving PT boat, and mines floating across the screen that serve as obstructions.

Sea Wolf is one of the first video games to include a high score feature, saving the highest value achieved prior to powering off.

On the first annual Game Machine arcade chart, Sea Wolf was the fifth highest-grossing arcade video game of 1976 in Japan, below Taito's Ball Park (Tornado Baseball) and Speed Race DX (Wheels), Sega's Heavyweight Champ, and Breakout (licensed by Namco from Atari).

In 1983, Epyx ported Sea Wolf II and another Midway game, Gun Fight, to the Atari 8-bit computers and released them in an "Arcade Classics" compilation.

[17] In 2008, Coastal Amusements released a retro video redemption game based on the original Sea Wolf.